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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'> extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Anders Sandberg<br><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, September 23, 2015 12:14 AM<br><b>To:</b> extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] a clean well-lighted challenge<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>On 2015-09-23 00:11, spike wrote:<br><br><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>>…</span>So now I have a challenge for you. Write a Hemmingway-esque story (or a you-esque story if you are better than Papa) which will teach me something, anything. The Hemmingway story has memorable qualities, but taught me nada. I am looking for a short story that is memorable and instructive, on any subject that interests you. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><br></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>>…</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"Customers!"<br></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'>…</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><br>"Local interaction, parameters easy to change during development or even after, variable optics effects."<br>"Stripes or hexagons would do diffraction spread for the bots."<br>"Bingo."</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>-- <o:p></o:p></p><pre>Anders Sandberg<o:p></o:p></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Cool! Thanks Anders, I have learned something about insect eyes. It never occurred to me before, but should have: insects don’t have eyelids and they fly around in dusty and polleny environments, so why don’t their eyeballs get dirty? Had you asked me before I read your short story, I might have guessed they clean them. If you watch a fly when it is sitting still (such as on a turd) it appears to be doing something vaguely analogous to what a cat does with its paw, washing its head. I would like to get a slo-mo video of a fly doing that, to see if it is cleaning its eyeballs.<o:p></o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>This is most of the reason I have continued to hang out here after all these years: you guys teach me things.<o:p></o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Now I get to see how well I taught you. From that short story you read yesterday, no looking it up, remember the jingle. Imagine it is the next day and the students are taking their test. They get this question:<o:p></o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Name the seven classes of stars by letter, in order of temperature and what comes next in the series if it isn’t a star. <o:p></o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></pre></div></body></html>